'Come hell or high water, you play golf on Thursday'

Philip Anselmo

Monday

Sep 24, 2007 at 12:01 AMSep 24, 2007 at 2:39 PM

And it has been that way since 1975 for a foursome that has taken male bonding to new heights.

When electrician Gerry Bournival broke his leg 11 years ago, his faithful golf partner Don Keyser didn't drop him from the team. Not willing to sit on the sideline, Bournival enlisted the aid of the course pro at Centerpointe Country Club in Canandaigua and learned how to swing standing on one leg.

“I played all summer,” boasts Bournival, who lives on Thomas Road a stone's throw from the eighth green. “They called me the stork.”

The two have been golfing partners for longer than Bournival has been married — a fact he never fails to stress whenever his wife complains that he golfs too much.

“I've been with her 30 years,” he says. “So I tell her, 'My partner comes first' — I've been with him 33 years.”

Along with the Bennett brothers, Gary and Greg, Bournival and Keyser have been hitting the links every Thursday — rain or shine — ever since that sunny summer in 1975 when the league at Jantley Hills ended for the season and none of them were willing to call it quits. The foursome hooked up and played 'til the snow blotted out the fairway and the carts couldn't steer through the sleet.

“Come hell or high water, you play golf on Thursday,” says Bournival. “No matter how busy. And if you have to work Saturday and Sunday — so be it.”

Often they swap partners, and “the kids” — Bournival, 65, and Greg Bennett, 59 — take on “the old-timers” — Keyser, 73, and Gary Bennett, 66. Though it stays mostly civil, the four do up the ante from time to time.

“We play dollar skins, dollar greenies and dollar three puts,” says Bournival. “But over 33 years, not enough money has changed hands to buy a round of drinks. It always evens out.”

A few Decembers ago, on a day that should have been spent shoveling snow or getting tinsel stuck on their sweaters, the foursome instead packed up their clubs and played through 18 holes. A freakishly warm winter lead to the Northeast's longest golf season ever — Bournival and gang played for 14 straight months, he says.

Not that a little snow would have led to a cancelled round. Neither element nor ailment keeps these guys off the green. Keyser has a bad back, but that doesn't stop him. Nor did Bournival's broken leg do much to deter him from the course.

On this day, the rain comes in sputtering drizzle — “just enough to be uncomfortable,” says Bournival as he spits out a grey cloud of cigarette smoke. Over by the tee, Keyser muffs a shot and lets loose a string of obscenities. Reaching for his back, he mopes back to the cart, still cursing under his breath. Right on cue, the Bennett brothers clutch their own backs and hobble around the tee, whining and miming Keyser. Strange his back only seems to bother him on bad shots, they note. But Keyser doesn't sweat it.

“They get what they give,” he says through a malevolent sneer.

Some things have changed. Every outing may begin and end with a round of beers, but they certainly don't gulp them down like they used to, says Bournival.

Nor is this town like it used to be, he notes.

“Thirty years ago, Canandaigua was a nice little town,” he says. “Now, it's getting to be too big.”

Yet still not big enough to contain this bunch.

"Some guys drop in and out of the league... but these guys have been in it continually for 33 years," says Centerpointe PGA Professional Jim Buchanan. "Marriages don't last that long, sometimes. But golf does that. It makes friends for life, and you can play it until you keel over."

Not that these guys are knocking on death's door, he notes. What's best, though, is that they have such a good time.

"Too many amateurs today take it too darned serious," he says. "They forget that this is a game for camaraderie and fun."

Not that these guys would deny their once youthful fits of fury.

A younger version of Bennett might have answered a doinked drive with a fierce slug of a five iron through a beer can. And a ruddier Bournival may have once sunk a putter in the swamp behind the 6th hole — it's still there, in fact. But those younger selves, along with some hair, some mobility and a lot of temper, have since been left behind.

“We're not in the U.S. Open,” says Bournival. “You get aggravated at work all day long ... We come here to have fun.”

“Why golf?” Bournival asks. “Because golf ... you just forget about everything else. You just think about the game itself.”

Golf's strong local links

Across the nation, golf seems to be getting more popular by the decade, and the metro Rochester area is a particular stronghold.

With nearby Locust Hill Country Club a regular stop on the LPGA tour and a long history of the PGA at Oak Hill, Rochester has bred a sort of golf connoisseur.

"The Rochester golfer is a very discriminating golfer, and it's a very attractive golfing community," says Centerpointe Country Club PGA pro Jim Buchanan.

How many people are actually out teeing off?

Centerpointe alone draws about 9,500 people a year who kick through an average of 28,000 rounds of 18 holes per year. At an average cost of just under $30 for the full course plus cart and an average playing time of four and a half hours, it's clear that plenty of time and money have gone the way of the green.

Where does that fit in the big picture?

The Connecticut State Golf Association (CSGA) estimates about 28 million golfers hitting the links for an average of 500 million round in the United States — that makes an average of 17 rounds of golf per person per year. A warm winter could see as many 600 million rounds played, a bitter cold one could drop that number closer to 400 million.

If you figure an average cost per round of 18 holes at about $20, the industry looks at about $10 billion on course fees alone. That doesn't include the balls, clubs, polo shirts, cleats, carts, golf joke book or GPS hole-distance calculators.

Philip Anselmo can be reached at (585) 394-0770, Ext. 322, or at panselmo@mpnewspapers.com